Summary: More opaque parts of discourse like up/downvoting are applied with standards so inconsistent and contextual that I consider it warranted for anyone to make a proposal for more objective, consistent and clear standards. I thought yours here was a comment especially undeserving of an unexplained downvote, so I wanted to leave a signal countering a notion the downvote was worthwhile at all.
I prefer both upvotes and downvotes are clarified, explained or justified. I doubt that will become a normal expectation. Yet in my opinion it’s warranted for me or any other individual to advocate for a particular (set of) standard(s) since that is better than the seeming alternative of discourse norms being more subjective and contextual as opposed to objective and consistent.
I don’t have a problem with others not starting a comment reply with ‘upvoted’ or ‘downvoted’ like I sometimes do if reaction is expressed in other ways. I received a downvote the other day and there was only one commenter. He didn’t tell me he downvoted me but he criticized the post for not being written clearly enough. That’s okay.
What frustrated me about you comment is of sufficient quality that I expect the downvote was likely because someone did not like what you said on a polarized subject. I.e., someone didn’t like it based on a perception it was too biased in favour of short-termism or long-termism. They may have a disagreement but if they don’t express it on an important topic and it’s emotive negative reaction when you’re only trying to be constructive, their downvote is futile. That’s something I’ve seen conversations off the EA Forum being the most common reason for downvotes on the EA Forum. Given the effort you put into a constructive comment, I wanted to counter this egregious case as having been pointless.
Summary: More opaque parts of discourse like up/downvoting are applied with standards so inconsistent and contextual that I consider it warranted for anyone to make a proposal for more objective, consistent and clear standards. I thought yours here was a comment especially undeserving of an unexplained downvote, so I wanted to leave a signal countering a notion the downvote was worthwhile at all.
I prefer both upvotes and downvotes are clarified, explained or justified. I doubt that will become a normal expectation. Yet in my opinion it’s warranted for me or any other individual to advocate for a particular (set of) standard(s) since that is better than the seeming alternative of discourse norms being more subjective and contextual as opposed to objective and consistent.
I don’t have a problem with others not starting a comment reply with ‘upvoted’ or ‘downvoted’ like I sometimes do if reaction is expressed in other ways. I received a downvote the other day and there was only one commenter. He didn’t tell me he downvoted me but he criticized the post for not being written clearly enough. That’s okay.
What frustrated me about you comment is of sufficient quality that I expect the downvote was likely because someone did not like what you said on a polarized subject. I.e., someone didn’t like it based on a perception it was too biased in favour of short-termism or long-termism. They may have a disagreement but if they don’t express it on an important topic and it’s emotive negative reaction when you’re only trying to be constructive, their downvote is futile. That’s something I’ve seen conversations off the EA Forum being the most common reason for downvotes on the EA Forum. Given the effort you put into a constructive comment, I wanted to counter this egregious case as having been pointless.